As the bills for the Democrats in Congress and President Barack Hussein Obama's out-of-control spending come due, the Democrats are looking for new ways to grab more of our money to pay for it.
Their latest scheme? How about a 1% tax on all financial transactions, including things like accessing your own money in your own bank account?
Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-Pa.)has proposed exactly that, as an editorial out by Democrat flack Lanny Davis reveals. His “Debt Free America Act” (H.R. 4646) would hit Americans for 1 percent “transaction tax” on every financial transaction — whether it involves cash, credit cards or any form of financial transfer, with the only exception being transactions involving the purchase or sale of stock.
That's a one point fee on everything - $200 bucks on a $20,000 car purchase, a nickle added to your $5 Starbucks addiction, an extra .20 every time you hit the ATM for a quick twenty, an extra two grand on a $200,00 home loan - direct from your pocket to the guv'mint.
My, my...a tax every time you move money around. That's only skimming a mere 1% of $443 trillion off of the economy. Why, that's only 30% of GDP, so we'll never miss it. And of course, nobody's going to try to avoid this tax by changing their behavior. people aren't going to stop using banks and ATMs or sending wire transfers or taking out loans, right? This couldn't possibly cause a liquidity crisis or lead to even more unemployment, no?
This is simply a VAT ( Value Added Tax) by another name. And just like all VATs the government's piece of the action will invariably rise as they find more things to spend our money on.
Does anyone really think that once Obama and the Democrats get this scam through that it's going to stay at a mere 1%? And not be extended to other kinds of transactions?
Nor do I trust them to keep this in a trust fund and use it to pay down the national debt. Remember Social Security? That particular Ponzi scheme was raped of it's money, and the so-called 'Social Security lockbox' consists of one large IOU.
Here's a better plan. Cut Federal spending by a penny on the dollar each year, on a month by month basis.Hey, they'll never miss it. And by the end of two years they'll be spending 25% less.
While we're at it, we can save even more money by eliminating any number of wasteful government programs and departments that serve no purpose except to keep an army of politically well-connected bureaucrats in well-paid positions. How much money are Obama's 40+ czars sucking up, for instance? And since Obama's 'stimulus' obviously was so much wasted cash, why not use the 50% of it or so he hasn't spent yet to pay down the $1.6 trillion deficit he ran up this last fiscal year? Instead of leaving it as slush fund for him and his political allies?
Hear ! Hear! xxxxxx One Of Hercules' labours ( or tasks ) was to slay the Hydra-headed monster. He decapitated the heads, but, to his horror, subsequently he discovered that the heads would naturally grow back in time. He had to cauterise ( I hope that that word is recognisable in English, for I do not know of an alternative ) the recently-decapitated necks with a red-hot iron poker. It was an Herculean labour. There must be a decapitating & cauterising of whole departments, agencies, ministries, & bureaux -- complete abolition. Abolish, not 'cut', 'rationalise', 'reform', or any of that other codswallop. To abolish a department, agency, ministry, or bureau, you do NOT have to pass a separate bill for the explicit, sole purpose of abolition. You don't. All you need do is what I term 'zero - line ' the entity in question in the annual appropriations bill for the federal budget -- that's it. That's all you need do. Simply write zero, zilch, nil, nothing, nada, naught, nought, no thanks, no way, no, 0, $0, $00.00. This is not rocket science. This is not a proposition from Euclid. If an entity is merely ' cut ', (sc, the rate of increase is reduced, ) then Little Billy Bureaucrat & Little Betty Bureaucrat need only pack their suitcases & switch federal agencies. Under the Democrats, they might have to move from the War Department to HEW ( Health, Education, & Welfare ) ; under the Republicans, they might have to pack their suitcases & move to the War Department ( yes, I know, it's now called ' defence ' ministry or other ). We have to effect out-right abolition. xxxxxx When did a presidential candidate last promise to eliminate something by name ? The last one I can think of was Bob Dole. Dole promised to abolish the Department Of Education, ( & was also my Ford's 1976 veep candidate running-mate, ) so I voted for him. Can anyone please tell me why we even need to have a Dept Of Education ? I'm not aware that the D O E even educates a single, solitary individual domestically. Perhaps some War Dept base dependent children domestically & on some safer foreign military bases ? Perhaps someone could defend the Department Of Education. I'm holding my breath ( so as to avoid adding carbon dioxide, that monstrous greenhouse, global-warming element, to the atmosphere, which St Albert Of Gore, the great jet-setter, is so terrified of -- of course, he can ' buy ' carbon tax credits since he is a millionaire ! ) If this post sounds familiar, my apologies, for, yes, I have essentially quoted some of my previous letters hereto. --dragon/dinosaur
ReplyDeleteWe already have a transaction tax = sales tax.
ReplyDeleteHow about this, abolish the federal reserve, eliminate income tax, and cut government spending by...say, 50% and when our debt is paid off, move the dollar back to the gold standard.
And continue to scale back the government to the size of the constitution.
This is just a sneaky way to pass the value added tax upon the people.
Semper Fi
Back in the day, I worked for Lehman Brothers, when it was a well run company. I was responsible for a 26 million dollar technology budget. This was handed down from above and I had to live within it. At any time, they could cut it (they never raised it mid year) based on business conditions, i.e., revenue was down, and I had to live within it. How did we do this? We always had a percentage of our labor as well paid consultants. They could be sent home at any time. That was part of their deal. I remember one time, we just cut their rates. You make $800 a day? Now you make $600. You don’t like it? There’s the door. When things got really grim, we cut full time headcount. We would also make tough choices about hardware and software that we now had to live without. Just don’t buy it, put it off until next year, or cancel a project. I know, I know, common sense is uncommon. Send me to Washington with a bunch of CPAs, and I could fix the mess in a year, if I could get anything passed.
ReplyDeleteAs for this new tax, the unintentional consequences, as you mention, would be unbelievable. Everything would be “Cash BeeNeez.” “My friend, my friend, special for you, cash, no tax.” Banks accounts would empty into safe deposit boxes. And you think the buy gold commercials are crazy now? Just wait. Little old ladies will become gangsters. Businesses will have signs, “Cash Only,” or “We Accept Barter & Krugerrands.” Anarchy is coming, buy your shotguns, ammo, bullet proof vests, pitchforks and torches, rice and dry beans and drinking water now. The end is near.